Las Cruces: A Photographic Journey Book Receives State Preservation Award

The book Las Cruces: A Photographic Journey, a collaborative project of the Las Cruces Bulletin and the NMSU Library’s Archives and Special Collections Department, has been awarded the Heritage Preservation Award by the Cultural Properties Review Committee and the Historic Preservation Division of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs. Individual awards will be presented to Charles Stanford and Dean Wilkey of the Library and David and Jaki McCollum of the Las Cruces Bulletin at a May 18 ceremony in Santa Fe.

Las Cruces: A Photographic Journey

Dr. Rick Hendricks, Chair of the Cultural Properties Review Committee, said “many elements of lost Las Cruces history are now available to a wider audience because of the book.”

The pictorial history was published just in time for the celebration of New Mexico’s centennial, and it has become a collector’s item and heirloom for families throughout this area. The 288-page book full of photographs and history of the Mesilla Valley offers a tour of the first 100 years of New Mexico statehood through the eyes of Las Cruces and Doña Ana County.

Of the nearly 1,200 photos in the volume, more than 500 are from the archival photo collection of the Library’s Archives and Special Collections Department.

To order the book, contact the Bulletin at (575) 524-8061. For more information on the award, contact Wilkey at (575) 646-4727.